Ice tray



I 2, F. SAMPSON $452,686;

ICE TRAY 2 smu -sheet 2 j Filed April 24, 1946' HMM'iYD 1', v ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 2, 1948 ICE TRAY Frederick W. Sampson, Dayton, Ohio, asslgnor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a.

corporation of Delaware Application April 24, 1946, Serial No. 664,557

4 Claims. (Cl. 62108.5)

- for use in household refrigerators.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved form of mechanically operated freezing tray from which the frozen ice blocks may be readily removed without melting the ice loose from the pan or grid.

This invention provides several important improvements over the device disclosed in Patent No. 2,305,687, issued December 22, 1942, to H. D. Geyer and myself as joint inventors.

In the grid of said prior patent the complete actuating bar for tilting the cross walls must be made in two separate pieces in order to permit assembling of the parts. One feature of this present invention is the one-piece construction of the actuating bar which is so designed as to greatly simplify assembling of the parts together and materially reduce the cost of manufacture.

In the grid of said prior patent the actuating bar is necessarily raised and lowered by the swinging motion of the hand lever, hence the notches in the cross walls thru which said bar extends must be of sufllcient extra depth to accommodate such raising and lowering of said actuating bar as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4 of said patent. This permits an undesirable haphazard teetering motion of said actuating bar and results in an excessively loose fit between said bar and the cross walls. A feature of this present invention is the elimination of such teetering of the actuating barand causing said bar to move directly longitudinally with no raising or lowering thereof during the ice-ejecting operation. By so eliminating all teetering motion of the actuating bar I obviously obtain greater accuracy in the progressive engagement of said bar with the cross walls and hence obtain more uniform operation of the device. v

A further feature of this invention is the cross section shape of the actuating bar and the partial internesting relation between said bar and the hand leveras shown in Fig. 3 herein. This readily permits the hand lever to lie below the plane of the upper edges of the cross walls and thereby provide a suitable flat plane for stacking two or more filled trays one upon the other.

Further objectsand advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

- Fig. 1 is a plan view of the grid and pan-of this invention, all the parts being in freezing position.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1, the hand lever being also shown in dotted lines near its position of maximum swing.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the central portion of the actuating bar.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 2 thru the axis of the pivot pin for the hand lever.

Fig. '7 is a section on line 1-1 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is a section on line 8-8 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 91s a section on line 99 0f Fig. 4.

- Fig. 10 is a partial plan view of the hand lever.

Fig. 11 is a side elevation of Fig. 10.

Fig. 12 is a section on line l2l2 of Fig. 11.

Fig. 13 is a section on line l3--l3 of Fig. 11.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The container pan l0 is'preferably drawn in one piece from flat sheet aluminum and is preferably slightly flexible so that it may be more easily loosened from its frozen contents. A marginal flange Il may have an extension i2 which serves as a handle for pan i0.

'I'he removable partitioning grid 20 comprises a main longitudinal wall 2| and a series of spaced cross walls 22 loosely mounted thereon so 'as to be tiltable relative thereto to loosen the frozen ice blocks from the grid and pan. Main wall 2| has a series of generally triangular shaped slots 23 extending upwardly thru its bottom edge to loosely receive the container portions 24 of cross walls 22, whilecross walls 22 each has a slot 25 to loosely receive the continuous portions 26 of main wall 2| above its slots 23. Fig. 2 shows the cross walls 22 inclined rearwardly in their freezin position against the rear edge of slots 23 while the bottom edge of each cross wall abuts the forward edge 28 of its slot 23 and thereby limits the rearward tiltingmovement thereof.

The slots 25 in cross walls 22 are shaped as shown in Fig. 3. To assemble the main and cross walls together, main wall 2! is tilted laterally and passed down thru the narrow opening 30 into the slots 25 in the cross walls, after which said main wall is tilted back to its vertical position, as shown in Fig. 3, where the small laterally-projecting tongue 3! on each cross wall can rest upon the top edge of main wall 2i and so prevent each cross wall from dropping due to gravity. Each cross Wall 22 has a relatively wide central notch 35 therein and two opposed marginal tongues 36 partially overlying central notch 35.

The longitudinally extending actuating bar 40 is shown as a die casting having the general cross sectional shape shown in Figs. 8 and '7 and a the cross walls overlie said bar and thus the main wall 2|, the cross walls 22 and the actuating bar 40 are all mutually retained against disassembling so long as said bar 40 is held in its flat horizontal position. When actuating bar 40 is moved horizontally to the left from its position shown in Fig. 2, the cross walls 22 will be tilted forward about their bottom edges as pivots by the notches 4| in said bar 40. Preferably, but not necessarily, the notches 4| are progressively wider in a longitudinal direction from the left,

end to the right end of bar I. (as seen-in Figs. 1 and 2) so that the full actuating force of bar '40 is first applied to tilt the leftmost cross wall to the left, then applied successively to all the remaining cross walls to similarly tilt same to the left one after the other.

The central portion of the die-cast actuating bar 40 is shaped as shown in Figs. 4 to 9. Said bar 40 has a quite large central hole 42 of proper shape and size to accommodate the pivoting of the hand lever .50 onto the upstanding projection 5| on main wall 2!. Handlever 5|! has a slot 52 at its pivoted end which receives the upstanding projection 5i and is pivoted thereto by pivot pin 53 which extends thru hole 54 in said lever. Lever has two aligned laterally projecting lugs 55, preferably cast integral therewith, and located slightly eccentric to pivot pin 53. The actuating bar 48 has twoopposed open-top sockets 55, preferably cast therein, within which the two lugs may be inserted from above when lever 50 is held in a vertical position and set down over upstanding projection 5i and pivotally mounted thereupon by the insertion of pivot pin 53. An assembling hole 51 thru one side of actuating bar 4|! is provided to permit the lateral insertion and staking in place of pin 53 in its hole 54 in lever 50. The final assembling operation of inserting and fixing pin 53 in place holds actuating bar 40 in its flat horizontal position due to the engagement of the two lugs 55 in the two sockets 58 in said bar 40. Thus the final insertion of pin 53 retains all the grid parts against disassembling. Preferably a small hole 55 is provided in the opposite side of actuating bar 40 from the assembling hole 5| so that the pin 53 may be knocked out by means of a punch extending thru hole 58. in the event it is desired to disassemble the grid.

The cross sectional shape of the main portion of the actuating bar", excluding the central portion thereof, is made as best shown in Figs. 3 and 7. The central or web portion 50 of said bar 40 is depressed materially below the upper edges of the marginal portions thereof. An important advantage of so depressing said web portion 60 is to provide an intemesting relation between said bar 40 and handlever 55 when inits down position shown in Figs. 2 and 3. This permits lever 50 to have sufllcient vertical thickness r' 4 each of cross walls 22 preferably is near the toll edges of said cross walls for the purpose of glv'. ing greater leverage for til-ting said cross walls. hence the construction clearlyshown in Fig. 3 gives both of the above-mentioned advantages. Since the actuating bar 42 is moved only horizontally by the camming action of lugs 55 in sockets 55 it is not necessary for the wide central serves as a suitable stop to limit the swing of lever 50 after said lever swings somewhat beyond its position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. Thus the chance of an unskilled person breaking the hand lever, or its pivot'connection, by attempting to force it beyond its limit of travel is greatly reduced.

The operation of the-tray and grid-is n follows: The grid is set loosely in pan In with the lever 50 and all other grid parts in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, where all the cross walls 22 are held tilted backward by the forward edges of notches M in actuating bar 40 against the rear edges of slots 23 in main wall 2!. Thus all the cross walls will be tlltedba-ck to a positively predetermined freezing position. Pan 10 may be filled with water, preferably at or slightly above the upper edge of main wall 2 I, and then inserted into a freezing chamber until the ice is hard frozen.

To remove the frozen ice blocks, the entire tray is removed from its freezing chamber and hand lever 50 simply swung counterclockwise (as seen in Fig. 2) to such position as will release the desired number of ice blocks. The two lugs 55 on lever 50 will move in an arc about pin 52 as a center and cam against the sides of sockets 55 in actuating bar 40 and thus force bar 40 hori--.-

zontally to the left with a greatly multiplied force. The left-most cross wall 22 will first be engaged by the rear edge of its notch II in bar 45 and be tilted forward, about its lower edge as a pivot. against the two ice blocks at the front end of pan l0 and cause these two blocks to loosen and slide upwardly along the inclined end wall of the pan. After said first cross wall 22 has been slightly tilted forward, the second cross wall 22 is engaged by the rear edge of its notch 4| in bar 40 and similarly tilted forward to release the second two ice blocks. As actuating bar 40 is fur-- notches 4| in bar 40 be uniformly progressively wider from left to right (as seen in Fig. 2) but also actuating bar 40 should .be moved directly horizontally without any lifting. or teetering thereof about its. pivot pin 53. described above so moves said actuating bar didirectly horizontally without lifting same at all.

The wide total angular travel of lever 55. as

described above, permits a high multiplication of The structure force between hand lever 50 and actuating bar 40 (which necessarily reduces the rate of movement of bar 40) and also sufllcient total movement of bar 40 to move all the cross walls 22 to almost a vertical position to facilitate the iceejecting operation.

Preferably all the ice contacting surfaces of both pan III and grid 20 are of anodized aluminum and impregnated or coated with a strongly adhering water-repellant wax or resin, such as are now well known.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed. constitutes a preferred dinally movable actuating bar for tilting said cross walls, said bar lying within said aligned notches and having a hole therein thru which said upstanding bearing projection extends, a

hand lever having a forked end pivotally mounted upon said upstanding projection and having laterally extending opposed eccentric lugs on said forked end, said actuating bar having integral open-top sockets within which said eccentric lugs project laterally for moving said actuating bar,

horizontally upon swinging said hand lever about its pivot mounting, said hand lever being insertable to its assembled position upon the grid after said actuating bar and cross walls have been fully assembled upon said main wall.

2. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, comprisinga main longitudinal wall having an up-' standing bearing projection on its upper edge, a

series of cross walls loosely mounted upon said main wall so as to be tiltable longitudinally thereof, a longitudinally movable actuating bar for tilting said cross walls, a hand lever, having a forked end pivotally mounted upon said upstanding projection and having two opposed laterally projecting eccentric lugs on said forked end, said actuating bar having two open-top sockets within which said eccentric lugs are insertable from above during assembling of said hand lever to the grid after said actuating bar has been assembled thereupon, said eccentric lugs servin to engage the opposed surfaces of said sockets for moving said actuating bar horizontally when said hand lever is swung about its pivot mounting. 1

3. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray, comprising a main longitudinal wall having an up standing bearing projection on its upper edge. a series of cross walls loosely mounted upon said main .wall so as to be tiltable longitudinally thereof, a longitudinally movable actuating bar for engaging and tilting said cross walls, said bar overlying said main wall and having a hole therein thru which said upstanding bearing projection extends, a hand lever pivoted upon said upstanding projection and having two laterally projecting lugs thereon located eccentric to its pivot axis, said actuating bar having two open-top sockets within which said laterally projecting lugs are insertable from above during assembling of said hand lever to the grid, said lugs serving to cam upon the surfaces of said sockets to move said actuating bar directly horizontally without lifting the same.

4. A partitioning grid for a freezing tray comprising a longitudinal main wall and a series of crosswalls loosely mounted thereupon so as to be tiltable relative to said longitudinal wall. a longitudinally movable actuating bar for tilting said cross walls. a hand lever pivoted upon said main wall in close proximity to said actuating bar, said lever having a laterally projecting cam located eccentric to but closely adjacent its pivot axis, said actuating bar having an open top socket thereon engaged by said laterally projecting cam for moving said actuating bar longitudinally when said hand lever is swung about its pivot axis, said hand lever being insertableto its assembled position upon the grid after said actuating bar and cross walls have been fully assembled upon said main wall.

' FREDERICK W. SAMPSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file 'of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS I Date 

